Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to tell the House and all Canadians that November is osteoporosis awareness month.

Osteoporosis is a degenerative bone disease that predisposes individuals to the risk of fractures. It affects 1.4 million Canadians over the age of 50, most of them women. It is estimated that one in four post-menopausal women has osteoporosis which often leads to a substantial deterioration in their quality of life while incurring considerable costs to the individual, their families and caregivers.

The Canadian MultiCentre osteoporosis study, a five year study supported by Health Canada and several private sector partners, provides better insight into this disease, its risk factors and its prevention.

We welcome team efforts such as this one, where many sectors get together to face a common challenge. The government also supports community programs designed to inform victims and help them improve their quality of life.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to emphasize for my parliamentary colleagues the importance of mining to Canada's economy.

In 1995 the metals and minerals sector accounted for $23 billion worth of economic activity, an amount equal to 4.4 per cent of Canada's gross domestic product. These numbers represent 340,000 high quality, high paying jobs of the future. Indeed, over 85 per cent of those working in the mining industry use advanced technology every day.

Mining pays a higher average wage than any other industrial sector in Canada and these are not seasonal but year-round jobs.

I applaud all those who are working to promote mining in Canada, including the mining industry representatives and labour we saw this week, as well as the Minister of Natural Resources.

I look forward to continuing my work with this industry, especially in Elliot Lake and Bruce mines, both located in my riding of Algoma. Each has undertaken important local projects to preserve and promote Canada's mining history and heritage with tours, historical sites, museums and the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in Elliot Lake.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday and the day before, the House of Commons welcomed a group of about 20 students from the Université de Sherbrooke, as part of the parliamentary matching program.

The purpose of this initiative is to match a student with a member of the House of Commons, preferably one representing the participant's riding.

This year, the vast majority of trainees were teamed with Bloc Quebecois members. The program gives these young people an opportunity to familiarize themselves with parliamentary procedures, and to see with their own eyes what parliamentarians do every day.

On behalf of the Bloc Quebecois, I congratulate the Université de Sherbrooke, and particularly Luc Dastous, who started this program. I personally want to thank the members on both sides of the House who welcomed a student this year, and I invite all members to do the same next year.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are pushing copyright legislation through this House in their usual ramrod way. Bill C-32 is before committee as we speak. We have had 190 briefs and 65 witnesses in eight weeks. It is called legislation by exhaustion.

The Liberals want to charge a blank tape levy on audio tapes that will hit churches, schools and their shut-in supporters. Why? Because some tapes happen to be used to copy music. This is tape tax.

The Liberals will not protect broadcasters in Canada from vexatious charges by composers and performers for the technical transfer of music but will hit those same broadcasters with new performance levies. This is called a performance tax.

However, to show how rushed this flawed copyright bill is and the lack of prior consultation, consider the archivists and people wanting to trace their geneology. Unbelievably, the Liberal legislation would slam the door on tracing family trees and reviewing property documents. This is typical Liberal legislation, all image, dangerous in substance, rammed through with minuscule meaningful input.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the annual lobby day of keep mining in Canada, an industry initiative to explain the importance of Canada's minerals and metals sector to parliamentarians. At the same time, the new minerals and metals policy was released in recognition of the importance of the mining industry in this country.

Mining plays a key role in Canada's economic well-being and the economic growth of cities such as Timmins, Ontario. It provides 12.4 per cent of total Canadian exports and employs some 341,000 people. Forty-nine new mines are scheduled to open in 1996 and 1997 with the potential of creating 31,000 direct and indirect jobs over the next five years. This will make a significant contribution to this government's jobs and growth agenda.

Thanks to the new policy on minerals and metals, and to other positive measures taken by the government, Canada will get its fair share of foreign mining investments.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this month I hosted the Brampton public forum on justice issues for concerned constituents in my riding. The purpose of this forum was to solicit their views on the future direction of Canada's justice policy.

My constituents came together to produce a number of constructive policy recommendations which I have submitted to the Minister of Justice for his review. Their message is clear. This government must continue its efforts to address pressing justice issues which we face as a society.

I would like to acknowledge the efforts of my constituents and the facilitators and recorders who oversaw the functioning of the workshops. I would also like to thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, the chief of the Peel regional police, the crown attorney for central west region and other panellists and resource people who were so generous with their experience and knowledge. All these elements came together to make the Brampton public forum on justice issues a success.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about the community access program of Industry Canada.

It is a program that is being offered which a lot of communities in my riding are adapting well to. It provides Internet access to schools and community groups so that they can receive all the power of the Internet and what it has to offer.

Community access is a very important program because it provides all communities throughout Canada with an equal opportunity to information. It provides all communities, whether you live in Quirpon, Cambridge, Victoria or Fogo Island, with equal access to the resources and to the knowledge of science, technology, culture and language.

This is an incredibly important program and I would like to congratulate Industry Canada on a job well done.

Mr. Speaker, the national conference of the Canadian Council for Refugees is being held from November 21 to 25 at the Aylmer monastery. Commencing today, dozens of participants will assess the situation of refugees in Canada.

The CCR represents 138 associations across the country, all of which are dedicated to providing assistance to refugees. Since its creation in 1977, the Canadian Council for Refugees has been arguing that no individual should be deported to a country where he may be jailed or tortured.

I fervently hope this conference will produce positive measures to improve settlement requirements for those refugees who choose Canada and Quebec as their new home. The government should draw inspiration from the humane policies put forth by this organization, which I commend for the outstanding job it has done over the past 19 years.

Mr. Speaker, this morning the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People's report was tabled in the House.

This report costs $58 million over five years and consists of approximately 4,200 pages. Equating that out to roughly $13,000 to $14,000 a page I do not think very many Canadians will consider that a bargain.

Also the report itself on the aboriginal people notes that more than $10 billion is spent for aboriginal peoples at all levels of government. Yet the royal commission is recommending in the order of a 50 per cent increase in spending.

There are three levels of government spending money but only one set of taxpayers. It is time to stop using these billions of dollars to line the pockets of the Indian industry lawyers and consultants. It is time to start putting money where it is needed, with the grassroots aboriginal people.

Mr. Speaker, the PQ minister responsible for international affairs said yesterday that Canadian embassies had been instructed to limit Quebec's influence abroad as much as possible.

Right off I must condemn this statement, which is totally false and unfounded. Second, the minister should admit that, if indeed Quebec does not have as much influence abroad as it used to, he has only himself and his cuts to Quebec delegations abroad to blame.

Sylvain Simard's comment shows that, in the PQ, the more things change, the more they stay the same. When they do not know how to explain their difficulties, they blame the federal government. Quebecers who have travelled or done business abroad are aware of and appreciate the value and quality of the services provided by Canadian embassies.

Mr. Speaker, on November 18, the secretary of state responsible for FORD-Q announced that the federal government would contribute $2 million to an initiative aimed at establishing a private company called Montreal International and providing it with $10 million in working capital.

These funds will enable the new company will be able to focus on promoting the greater Montreal area at the international level. It will, among other things, look for foreign investors and help set up head offices and international organizations in the greater Montreal area.

Montreal International will help create a climate that will promote job creation and enhance business activity significantly in Montreal. My congratulations to everyone involved.

Mr. Speaker, after more than five years of hearings, including a two year extension under the present government, and $58 million of the public's money, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples has just tabled a voluminous report of over 4,000 pages on the situation of native peoples in Canada.

My question is for the minister of Indian affairs. Does he agree with the royal commission that the solution to aboriginal problems lies in a royal proclamation followed by a series of legislative measures by the federal government?

Mr. Speaker, the royal commission tabled a few hours ago a voluminous series of reports involving 440 recommendations, covering everything from housing to royal proclamations. It involves just about every ministry in the federal government and probably every minister of the provincial and territorial governments.

The royal proclamation is something that the premiers of the provinces, the Prime Minister and the First Nations will have to discuss. They will need time to read the report and come up with whatever recommendations they see fit.

Mr. Speaker, since a good many aboriginal problems come under provincial jurisdiction, how does the minister of Indian affairs intend to proceed in order to respect this jurisdiction, bearing in mind the recommendations of the Dussault-Erasmus report with its extremely centralizing approach?

Mr. Speaker, the commissioners and the commission make it quite clear that on many aspects of the report it will need co-operation of the provinces and territories and the federal government.

There are only 89 recommendations where they say the federal government has the direct right to implementation. In the overwhelming majority, I think over 200, they are saying it will require consultation with the provinces, sometimes cities and sometimes territories.